Anime / Manga

Mukai Osamu to lend his voice to 'Doraemon'

It was announced that actor Mukai Osamu will challenge voice acting in anime "Doraemon." Mukai's character will be an action star named "Mukai Osaru", and his appearance will be on the episode "Saikyou! Korobashiya Z" that is scheduled to be aired on March 1st.

According to Mukai, he's been watching "Doraemon" since he was little. He said, "I never thought that I would be able to appear in it, and I have been one of the viewers, so I was happy." Regarding his first challenge on voice acting, he commented, "It was hard. Although I heard (that it is difficult) from people around me, but I experienced it with my own body. In regular acting, I can express using my body and face expressions, but acting with only voice is difficult."

He also revealed that his favorite character is Gian saying, "He is a cute person when I think about it now as an adult."

The character "Mukai Osaru" is an action star born in 22nd century in year of the monkey, and he is supposed be Mukai's descendant. Because of his splendid action skills like a monkey (= "Saru" in Japanese), he was given the stage name "Mukai Osaru." He stars in a detective drama "Saru Kani Deka", and even receives an offer to appear in a Hollywood action movie "Osaru no Kagoya."

It was also announced that Mukai would also make an appearance with the same character in the anime film "Eiga Doraemon: Nobita no Himitsu DouguMuseum" that is scheduled for release on March 9th. Mukai is the 3rd one to make a cameo appearance in Doraemon anime film after Fukuyama Masaharu and Oguri Shun.